o 

PZ5H 

i«5  g/5? 

REPORT 

ON  A MEMORIAL 


THE  ALUMNI  OF  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE, 


AT  BOSTON  AND  THE  VICINITY, 


TO  THE  TRUSTEES; 

ON 

SCHOLARSHIPS  AND  PRIZES. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,  BROWN  AND  COMPANY. 

1858. 


CAMBRIDGE: 


ALLEN  AND  FAUN  II  AM,  PEINTEES. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTICE. 


At  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Trustees  of  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege, at  Commencement,  1857,  a Memorial,  from  the  “ Association 
of  the  Alumni  residing  in  Boston  and  the  Vicinity,”  was 
presented  to  the  Board,  and  referred  to  a Special  Committee. 

The  Report  of  that  Committee  was  laid  before  the  Trustees  at  an 
adjourned  meeting,  November  30th  ensuing,  and,  after  attentive  con- 
sideration, was  adopted,  with  its  accompanying  Resolutions. 

The  Trustees  now  publish  these  papers,  for  the  sake  of  greater 
convenience  in  explaining  to  the  Alumni,  and  other  persons  desirous 
of  such  information,  the  principles  on  which,  for  some  years  past,  they 
have  ordered  the  government  and  discipline  of  the  College. 

The  occasion  which  has  led  to  the  publication,  and  virtually 
required  it,  will  be  at  once  perceived  by  the  reader.  The  Trustees 
might  not  have  chosen  it ; but  they  use  it  not  reluctantly,  for  justify- 
ing the  somewhat  peculiar  but  honest  views  which  they  have,  in 
general,  entertained,  of  a question  that  deeply  affects  the  interests  of 
learning  and  religion. 

They  have  no  pleasure  in  the  mere  singularity  of  their  position. 
But  equally  they  have  no  wish  to  withhold  the  reasons  of  it.  If  in 
error,  they  would  be  corrected ; but  that  is,  of  course,  impossible,  till 
they  make  themselves  soundly  understood. 


4 


The  pamphlet  concerns  especially  certain  distinguished  Alumni  of 
the  College.  But  the  subject  of  it  is  of  more  public  consequence  ; 
and  it  is  accordingly  commended  to  the  friends  of  Christian  education 
in  general. 

N.  LORD. 

Dartmouth  College,  Jan.  1,  1858. 


M E M 0 R I A L . 


At  a quarterly  meeting  of  “The  Association  of  the  Alumni 
of  Dartmouth  College,  residing  in  Boston  and  the  Vicin- 
ity,” holden  April  8th,  1857,  the  following  Resolutions  were  unani- 
mously adopted.  They  were  duly  presented,  at  the  next  ensuing 
Commencement,  as  a memorial  to  the  Trustees 

j Resolved,  That  a Committee  of  five  be  appointed  to  confer 
with  the  President  and  Faculty  of  the  College,  and,  with  their 
approval,  at  Commencement,  with  the  Board  of  Trustees,  upon  the 
expediency  of  establishing  a system  of  scholarships  and  prizes  for 
the  encouragement  and  reward  of  superior  merit. 

If  such  a system  should  be  deemed  expedient  by  the  President, 
Faculty,  and  Trustees,  then 

Resolved , That  it  be  respectfully  suggested  by  this  Committee, 
(1)  whether  the  income  of  the  Second  College  Grant,  so  called, 
designed  for  the  aid  of  young  men  from  New  Hampshire,  would 
not  be  best  appropriated  to  them  in  scholarships  and  prizes  for 
merit,  if  the  terms  of  the  grant  would  so  allow ; (2)  whether  the 
income  from  the  town  of  Wheelock  might  not  be  appropriated  in 
like  manner  to  young  men  from  Vermont;  (3)  whether  the  gratu- 
ities from  the  Chandler  Fund  would  not  be  best  awarded  upon 
similar  principles  ; and  (4)  whether  regard  should  not  be  paid  to 
scholarship  in  distributing  the  proceeds  of  the  funds  for  the  aid  of 
students  preparing  for  the  Ministry. 


6 


Resolved,  That  it  be  also  suggested,  whether  these  scholarships 
and  prizes  would  not  be  most  useful,  if  they  should  be  awarded 
from  year  to  year,  upon  special  examination  in  particular  depart- 
ments by  disinterested  committees ; and  whether  the  best  time  for 
such  an  examination  would  not  be  the  commencement  of  the  Spring 
term. 

Resolved , That  it  be  proposed  for  consideration,  (1)  whether 
generous  individuals,  zealous  for  the  cause  of  learning  and  educa- 
tion, might  not  be  pleased  to  establish  such  scholarships  or  prizes, 
giving  to  them  their  own  or  other  names,  and  specifying  the  con- 
ditions of  their  bestowal ; (2)  whether  the  members  of  graduated 
classes  might  not  wish  to  establish,  in  like  manner,  class  scholar- 
ships or  prizes ; (3)  whether  the  friends  of  some  of  our  Academies 
or  High  Schools  would  not  unite  in  founding  scholarships  ior  the 
most  worthy  students  entering  College  from  those  academies  or 
schools ; and  (4)  whether  it  would  not  be  expedient  that  such 
scholarships  and  prizes  as  are  specified  in  this  resolution  should, 
for  the  most  part,  be  established  for  a limited  number  of  years,  so 
that  the  immediate  benefit  derived  from  them  should  not  be  con- 
fined to  the  mere  interest  of  a funded  sum. 


REPORT. 


A MEMORIAL  Of  “ THE  ASSOCIATION  OP  THE  At.TTMNT  RESID- 
ING in- Boston  and  the  Vicinity,”  proposing  “a  system 
of  scholarships  and  prizes  for  the  encouragement  and 
reward  of  superior  merit,”  at  Dartmouth  College,  having 
been  duly  communicated,  through  the  President  and 
Faculty,  to  the  Trustees,  and  having  been  referred  by 
them  to  a Special  Committee,  that  Committee  beg  leave 
respectfully  to  report : — 

That  the  magnitude  of  the  subject  in  hand,  and  its 
bearings  upon  the  interests  of  the  College  and  of 
education  in  general,  as  well  as  the  distinguished  char- 
acter of  the  Memorialists,  give  great  consequence  to  the 
Kesolutions  which  they  have  submitted,  and  call  for  the 
attentive  consideration  of  the  Trustees. 

The  Memorialists,  in  their  second  Resolution,  suggest 
to  the  Trustees  diverse  methods  by  which  the  proposed 
system  of  scholarships  and  prizes  may  be  established. 
But,  without  reference,  at  present,  to  any  previous 
question  concerning  the  propriety  of  such  a system 


8 


on  general  grounds,  the  particular  methods  suggested 
by  the  Memorialists,  in  that  Resolution,  seem  to  your 
Committee  liable  to  serious  objections  : — 

I.  It  is  suggested  by  the  Memorialists,  “ Whether 
the  income  of  the  Second  College  Grant,  so  called, 
designed  for  the  aid  of  young  men  from  New  Hamp- 
shire, would  not  be  best  appropriated  to  them  in  scholar- 
ships and  prizes  for  merit,  if  the  terms  of  the  grant 
would  so  allow  ? ” 

In  the  judgment  of  your  Committee,  the  terms  of 
the  grant  virtually  forbid  such  an  appropriation.  That 
instrument  provides  that  the  income  of  the  property 
granted  shall  be  perpetually  for  indigent  young  men, 
the  sons  of  indigent  parents  in  the  State ; and  the 
proposed  appropriation  would  be  clearly  objectionable, 
because  — 

(1)  There  would  be  logical  violence  in  substituting 
best  scholars  for  indigent  scholars.  The  terms,  and  the 
ideas  represented,  are  not  equivalent  and  interchange- 
able. 

(2)  The  best  scholars  might  not  be,  and  probably 
in  many  instances  would  not  be,  indigent  scholars. 
In  such  cases  there  would  be,  practically,  a perversion 
of  the  funds  from  their  literal  designation. 

(3)  The  scholars  gaining  prizes  would  necessarily  be 
few.  The  indigent  who  receive  this  charity,  agreeably  to 
the  terms  of  the  grant,  are  many : — ‘ the  poor  we  have 
always  with  us.’  To  encourage  such  persons  in  their 
commendable  pursuit  of  knowledge  under  difficulties 


9 


was  the  evident  design  of  the  grant.  That  benevolent 
design  would  be  counteracted  by  excluding  the  greatest, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  smallest,  number. 

(4)  The  indigent  young  men  who  would  fail  of  the 
benefit  of  the  funds  might  be  morally  more  worthy 
than  the  few  who  would  receive  it.  This  is  according 
to  frequent  experience.  Whether  it  is  likely  to  be  so, 
in  general,  from  applying  the  educational  stimulus 
exclusively  or  mainly  to  the  intellect,  is  not  now 
material.  But  whenever  such  cases  should  occur,  the 
College  would  appear  to  place  a higher  estimate  upon 
intellectual  than  upon  moral  worth ; and  virtue  would 
be  likely  to  lose  ground  under  such  discouragement. 
An  ultimate  probable  consequence  would  be  a letting 
down  of  the  standard  of  scholarship  itself,  since  true 
learning,  not  less  than  other  valuable  properties  of  men, 
when  dissociated  from  virtue,  is  likely  to  decline.  Such, 
at  least,  would  be  the  probable  judgment  of  some 
persons  who  have  an  indirect  interest  in  the  appropri- 
ation of  this  public  charity ; and  it  would  constitute 
a serious  objection. 

(5)  The  indigent  young  men  who  now  receive  this 
benefit  generally  have  the  fewest  advantages  in  early 
life.  The  rich,  brought  up  at  the  best  schools,  go 
before  them  in  the  first  stages  of  the  College  course. 
But  at  the  end,  or  subsequently  in  public  life,  the 
tables  are  turned.  The  rich,  especially  when  fed  with 
prizes,  tire,  and  are  overtaken  and  left  behind.  Expe- 
rience has  taught  this  largely  at  this  College.  We  look 

2 


10 


for  those  who  have  been  heavily  burdened,  and  made 
slow  progress  at  the  beginning,  to  stand  under  the 
heaviest  responsibilities  in  the  end.  It  is  of  doubtful 
expediency  to  increase  their  early  discouragements  by 
giving  their  bread  to  those  who,  even  in  an  intellectual 
point  of  view,  are  not  likely  to  equal  them  in  the  run 
of  life. 

(6)  Many  of  the  best  citizens  distrust  the  wisdom  of 
any  system  of  prizes,  in  a course  of  Christian  education. 
Let  it  be  that  these  persons  are  over-scrupulous  and 
unwise.  Yet  they  would  be  none  the  less  likely,  on 
that  account,  to  be  dissatisfied  with  what  would  seem 
to  them  a deviation  from  the  terms,  and  evident  design, 
of  the  grant.  The  College  would  lose  their  confidence. 
They  might  bring  it  into  question  before  the  Legisla- 
ture of  the  State ; and  the  profit  and  loss  account,  in 
such  a controversy,  would  probably  be  against  it. 

II.  The  Memorialists  suggest,  in  the  same  Resolu- 
tion, a similar  appropriation  of  the  income  of  the 
town  of  Wheelock  to  young  men  from  Vermont. 

In  one  respect  the  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire 
grants  are  not  parallel.  Vermont  gave  to  the  College 
a moiety  of  the  township  of  Wheelock,  for  general 
purposes ; the  New  Hampshire  grant  contemplated  the 
specific  benefit  of  indigent  students  belonging  to  the 
State. 

But  it  is  questionable  whether  a grant,  originally 
made  for  general  purposes,  and  used  accordingly  for 
more  than  half  a century,  and  still  requisite  to  meet 


11 


the  current  expenses  of  the  College,  could  now  be 
rightfully  sequestered  to  specific  uses  which  are  not 
signified  in  the  deed  of  gift,  and  are  not  necessary  to 
the  direct  support  of  the  institution,  or  likely  ever 
to  be  materially  beneficial  in  that  respect. 

If  this  could  be  done  rightfully,  yet,  in  the  judgment 
of  your  Committee,  it  would  be  of  doubtful  expedi- 
ency : — 

(1)  Because  the  right  is  not  self-evident ; and  seri- 
ous questioning  and  litigation,  without  a sufficient  off- 
setting advantage,  might  ensue. 

(2)  In  view  of  the  delicate  relations  of  the  College 
to  the  State  of  Vermont: — Many  of  the  citizens  of 
that  State  have  been  jealous  of  the  benefit,  small 
though  it  be,  which  the  College  has  derived  from  what 
they  judge  to  have  been  an  unwise  act  of  an  early 
Legislature  under  a peculiar  pressure.  The  College 
has  been  drawn  by  them  before  the  courts  to  vindi- 
cate its  chartered  rights ; and  attempts  have  been  made 
to  draw  it  before  the  Legislature, _ upon  very  inconsider- 
able grounds.  An  occasion  like  that  suggested  by  the 
Memorialists  might  revive  the  jealousy  now  meas- 
urably allayed,  and  lead  to  renewed  controversy.  And 
this  difficulty  would  not  be  relieved  by  the  considera- 
tion that  the  income  of  Wheelock  would  then  be 
applied  to  students  from  Vermont : For, 

(3)  Such  an  application  might  be  construed  as  a lure 
to  young  men  of  Vermont  to  seek  their  education  at 
Dartmouth  rather  than  at  the  Colleges  of  their  own 


12 


State.  This  would  naturally  give  rise  to  jealousies  in 
higher  circles,  and  the  College  might  seem  to  be  invidi- 
ously, as  it  is  not,  a competitor,  rather  than  a co-worker, 
as  it  is,  with  these  sister  institutions.  Unworthy  strife, 
instead  of  the  present  friendship,  would  be  likely  to 
ensue. 

III.  The  Memorialists  propose  a similar  use  of  the 
so  called  Charity  Funds. 

These  funds  were  all  asked  and  given  for  the  aid 
of  indigent  and  pious  young  men,  preparing  for  the 
Gospel  ministry,  and  not  for  a few  of  the  best  scholars 
among  them.  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  donors 
thought  of  such  an  application  of  their  charity.  It  is 
not  probable  that  all  would  have  consented  to  give 
their  money  for  that  purpose.  Many  religious  people 
question,  upon  high  authority,  whether  those  ministers 
of  the  Gospel  are  best  who  are  most  distinguished 
for  “ excellency  of  speech  and  of  wisdom.”  It  is  not 
probable  that  such  persons  would  have  consented  to 
establish  a system  which  should  even  seem  to  imply 
that  the  best  scholarship  is  the  test  of  superior  merit 
in  a class  of  men  whom  they  are  in  the  habit  of  think- 
ing best  when  they  determine  “ to  know  nothing  save 
Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified,”  and  who,  by  the 
foolishness  of  preaching,  are  said  to  benefit  the  greatest 
number  of  mankind.  These  funds  are  recent.  Many 
of  the  excellent  donors  are  now  living.  Whether  they 
misjudge  or  not  in  respect  to  the  most  beneficial  use 
of  their  charity,  it  would  be  inexpedient  to  wound 


13 


their  sensibilities,  or  give  occasion  for  their  complaints, 
at  least  without  a geater  positive  advantage  than  would 
naturally  result  from  the  proposed  change. 

As  it  is,  these  funds  are  now  appropriated  by  the 
Faculty,  under  authority  from  the  Trustees,  to  all  indi- 
gent students  preparing  for  the  ministry,  of  good  moral 
and  religious  character,  but  of  every  grade  of  scholar- 
ship that  consists  with  regular  standing  and  respect- 
able graduation.  It  turns  out  practically,  as  long  ex- 
perience has  proved,  that  some  who  are  not  the  best 
scholars  at  College  become  the  best  ministers  and  the 
ablest  men.  Mere  scholarship,  as  it  is  rated  at  Col- 
lege, is  not  a necessary  index  of  the  highest  manhood 
or  piety,  or  prognostic  of  greatest  success  in  life.  Or, 
if  it  were  judged  a sufficient  rule  of  merit  in  respect 
to  qualification  for  the  secular  professions,  it  is  doubt- 
fully so  in  regard  to  a sacred  calling,  which  is  liable 
to  suffer  most  from  intellectual  pride,  and  the  lust  of 
social  preeminence.  But  were  the  best  scholarship  at 
College  of  greater  comparative  consequence  than  it 
is  found  to  be  in  the  practical  life  of  the  ministry,  it 
is  unquestionable,  that  many  students  who  would  fail 
of  a prize  by  the  College  standards  do  nevertheless 
become  eminent  servants  of  Him  who  calleth  “ not 
many  wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not 
many  noble,”  to  his  peculiar  work.  Such  worthy  per- 
sons are  most  apt  to  need  this  kind  of  charity  at  their 
outset;  and  there  seems  no  sufficient  reason  why  they 
should  not  receive  it  from  the  funds  in  question,  which 


14 


were  evidently  bestowed  for  deserving  young  men  in 
general,  and  not  for  a few  more  gifted  or  enterprising 
competitors. 

IV.  The  Memorialists  further  suggest,  “ Whether 
the  gratuities  from  the  Chandler  Fund  would  not  be 
best  awarded  upon  similar  principles  ? ” 

But  the  Will  of  Mr.  Chandler  evidently  contemplates 
no  such  appropriations.  On  the  contrary,  he  seems 
to  have  been  impressed  throughout  with  the  importr 
ance  of  giving  encouragement,  by  his  munificent  be- 
quest, rather  to  the  many  than  the  few.  It  was  in 
his  mind  to  popularize  the  benefits  of  knowledge,  to 
radiate  and  diffuse,  rather  than  to  concentrate,  light, 
and  thereby  secure  a better  balance  of  society.  If 
he  had  meant  to  establish  a system  of  scholarships 
and  prizes,  he  would  doubtless  have  so  spoken  in  the 
Will.  But  nothing  of  that  kind  appears  ; and  it  might 
be  hazardous  to  give  to  that  remarkable  document  a 
figurative  interpretation,  thereby  virtually  contravening 
its  literal,  and,  doubtless,  its  intended,  import. 

Your  Committee  judge,  therefore,  that,  though  a 
system  of  scholarships  and  prizes  at  the  College  were 
conceded  to  be  desirable,  yet  the  particular  methods 
suggested  by  the  Memorialists  in  their  second  Resolu- 
tion are  inexpedient. 

But  other  methods,  proposed  by  them  in  subsequent 
Resolutions,  are  not  liable,  in  any  considerable  degree, 
to  similar  objections.  Your  Committee  see  no  reason 
to  question  them,  except  in  reference  to  the  principles 


15 


which  any  and  every  prize  system  in  education,  as 
far  as  known,  necessarily  involves.  But,  in  this  re- 
spect, as  there  is  room  to  question,  your  Committee, 
with  the  greatest  deference  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Me- 
morialists, feel  constrained  to  express  their  judgment 
on  the  other  side. 

But  it  is  important,  beforehand,  to  recur  to  past  acts 
of  the  Trustees  in  reference  to  a kindred  question. 

It  will  be  recollected  by  some  of  the  present  mem- 
bers of  the  Board,  that  about  a quarter  of  a century 
ago  there  arose  a simultaneous  questioning  among 
the  students  at  most  of  the  New  England  Colleges, 
in  regard  to  college  appointments  in  general.  It  was 
a spontaneous  movement  of  the  young  men,  conse- 
quent upon  an  unusual  religious  awakening  among 
them,  and  seemed  a common  reaction  of  conscience 
against  a common  injurious  custom.  The  students 
of  this  College  were  excited  more  than  others.  At 
least,  they  were  more  demonstrative.  By  memorial, 
they  unanimously  requested  the  Trustees  to  abolish 
the  existing  system. 

The  Trustees  gave  great  attention  to  the  request. 
Having  ascertained  that  the  Faculty  would  readily 
try  the  experiment  of  a change,  although  but  two 
of  them  were  convinced  of  its  utility,  they  set  aside 
the  existing  system  of  exhibitions,  prizes,  assignments, 
etc.,  and  ordained  the  present  system,  which  fully  and 
consistently  excludes  the  principle  of  the  old.  This 
action  of  the  Trustees  was  thorough,  consistent,  and 


16 


decisive,  and  was  far  in  advance  of  what  had  taken 
place  in  any  other  institution.  It  gave  great  content 
to  the  students.  It  was  followed  by  many  tokens  of 
public  approbation.  The  Faculty  at  once  found  their 
administration  relieved,  simplified,  and  greatly  facili- 
tated in  general.  The  College  rapidly  attained  to  a 
degree  of  patronage  and  prosperity  unprecedented  in 
its  history. 

After  a few  years,  a severe  outside  pressure  produced 
a degree  of  anxiety  in  regard  to  the  prudence,  if  not 
the  principle,  of  the  change.  Some  distinguished 
Alumni  of  the  College,  and  other  gentlemen,  remon- 
strated against  it  as  an  innovation  not  soundly  moral 
and  conservative,  but  radical  and  disorganizing.  They 
feared  that  the  College  would  lose  its  tone  and  dignity 
among  learned  institutions.  The  Trustees,  though  not 
convinced,  were  stirred,  and  again  asked  the  judgment 
of  the  Faculty. 

The  Faculty  replied,  that,  although  they  had  not 
as  a body  recommended  the  adoption  of  the  new 
system,  they  had  given  it,  as  duty  required,  a fair 
experiment,  and  were  constrained  to  say,  that  it  had 
turned  out  better  than  their  expectations.  Notwith- 
standing some  inconvenience,  it  had  obviated  serious 
evils,  had  secured  unquestionable  benefits,  and  had 
given  a decided  impulse  to  the  College.  They  were 
not  prepared  to  advise  its  discontinuance.  Where- 
upon the  Trustees  resolved  to  adhere. 

Yet,  after  another  short  term  of  years,  changes  having 


17 


occurred  both  in  the  Trustees  and  Faculty,  and  the 
outside  pressure  still  continuing,  the  subject  again 
came  under  the  discussion  of  the  Board.  In  that  in- 
stance it  was  formally  proposed  by  a majority  of  the 
Faculty.  Some  new  members  had  been  added  to  that 
body,  who  had  had  no  experience,  as  College  officers, 
of  the  old  system.  Others  had  left  it ; and  some  had 
seen  reasons  to  change  their  opinions.  A large  ma- 
jority requested  that  the  old  regime , or  something 
analogous  to  it,  should  be  restored. 

The  minority  confidently  protested.  They  had  had 
experience  on  both  sides,  and  were  satisfied  that  the 
new  system  had  greatly  the  advantage  of  the  old,  both 
in  respect  to  principle  and  practical  results. 

The  Trustees  gave  the  subject  their  attentive  con- 
sideration, canvassed  conflicting  reasons,  and  still  ad- 
hered. They  enjoined  it  upon  the  Faculty  to  abide 
by  the  new  system,  and  to  keep  its  principle  inviolate 
in  the  College  discipline. 

Since  that  time  the  question  has  been  at  rest.  What- 
ever differences  of  opinion  may  have  existed  in  the 
Board  or  in  the  Faculty,  they  have  not  interfered  with 
the  regular  and  faithful  administration  of  affairs  upon 
the  prescribed  basis.  The  College  has  not  suffered. 
It  has  not  ceased  to  flourish,  in  respect  to  sound  in- 
struction, easy  and  effective  discipline,  a righteous 
order,  thorough  scholarship,  a liberal  patronage,  and 
an  honorable  position.  It  is  believed  to  be  not  behind 
any  of  its  sister  colleges  in  the  proper  characteristics 

3 


18 


of  a learned  institution,  even  though  measured  not  by 
its  best,  but  its  average  scholarship,  as  determined  by 
lot,  in  the  exercises  of  the  Commencement.  Its  order 
has  become  so  well  settled  and  understood  in  this 
respect,  that  any  reversal  of  it,  principle  apart,  might 
be  attended  with  inconveniences  and  hazards  more 
than  sufficient  to  counterbalance  any  supposed  possible 
or  probable  advantages. 

But  it  is  eminently  due  to  the  learned  Memorialists, 
and  to  other  friends  and  patrons  of  the  College,  to 
explain  more  fully  the  theory  on  which  the  Trustees 
have  acted,  and  which  applies  equally  to  the  questions 
now  in  hand.  Wherefore  your  Committee  go  on  to 
observe  — as  first  principles : — 

(1)  That  a College  is  a public  institution,  designed 
and  incorporated  to  qualify  young  men  for  leaders  of 
the  Church  and  State. 

(2)  That  the  requisite  qualifications  for  such  leader- 
ship are  knowledge,  wisdom,  and  virtue.  Accidental 
accomplishments  are  important  in  giving  prominence 
and  effect  to  more  substantial  qualities ; but  these  are 
fundamental  and  indispensable.  Without  them  the 
public  interests,  so  far  as  connected  with  College,  have 
no  security. 

(3)  That  these  qualifications  are  valueless  in  sepa- 
ration from  each  other;  and  are  then  likely  to  be 
injurious  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  culture.  Knowl- 
edge without  wisdom  is  insane  and  mischievous ; and 
both  without  virtue  serve  but  to  give  greater  energy 


19 


and  efficiency  to  those  naturally  destructive  elements 
which  are  common  both  to  individuals  and  society. 
Virtue  alone,  if  it  could  be  supposed  to  exist  without 
knowledge  and  wisdom,  would  be  but  an  idea,  or  an 
emotion,  and  practically  futile. 

(4)  That  the  organization  and  discipline  of  a College 
constitute  what  we  denominate  its  order ; and  the 
highest  responsibility  rests  on  its  appointed  guardians, 
to  perfect  and  preserve  this  necessary  order  agreeably 
to  the  highest  standards  that  are  known  among  men. 

(5)  That  the  ultimate  standard,  binding  on  all  Chris- 
tian educators,  is  the  Scripture ; and  their  ultimate 
responsibility  is  to  God.  Great  latitude  is  given  them 
by  the  State ; and  they  are  not  held  accountable  to 
the  civil  authorities,  in  the  widest  exercise  of  their 
discretion,  while  they  infringe  not  upon  the  civil  stat- 
utes. The  State  leaves  them  to  their  own  opinions 
and  policy,  within  the  terms  of  their  chartered  privileges 
and  the  laws  in  general.  The  Church  has  no  control 
over  them  whatever  but  in  respect  to  patronage,  when 
they  are  constituted  as  mere  civil  corporations ; and 
it  may  not  interfere  with  them  but  as  individual  men  ; 
nor  then,  if  they  happen  to  sustain  no  individual  and 
personal  relations  to  it.  But  the  State  and  the  Church 
are  equally  ordained  of  God ; and  all  educators  are  re- 
sponsible to  Him  that  the  comprehensive  order  of  their 
institutions  shall  be  in  agreement  with  the  principles  of 
His  Word,  and  thereby  subservient  to  the  public  good. 

(6)  That  the  order  of  a College  is,  first,  mechanical,  in 


20 


respect  to  its  forms,  arrangements,  and  observances; 
and,  secondly , moral,  in  respect  to  principle. 

(7)  That  college  mechanism  in  general  should  have 
respect  to  the  most  perfect  development  of  the  powers 
of  students,  and  be  carried  on  with  great  exactness 
and  fidelity ; that  any  want  of  symmetry,  proportion, 
finish,  balance,  and  executive  ability,  or  frequent  ex- 
perimenting and  change  to  meet  internal  difficulties,  or 
the  humors  and  caprices  of  society,  must  tend  to  failure 
and  dishonor.  But  that  no  mechanism,  however  organi- 
cally perfect  or  judiciously  administered,  that  does  not 
embody  a righteous  moral  principle,  or  that  cannot  be 
operated  in  consistency  with  it,  can  be  otherwise  than 
injurious  in  its  ultimate  results. 

Whereupon  your  Committee  propose,  that  a system 
of  scholarships  and  prizes,  as  such  systems  have  usually 
obtained,  cannot  be  introduced  into  college  mechanism, 
or  be  carried  on,  consistently  with  righteous  principle, 
and  favorably  to  virtue  in  young  men,  or  to  true  knowl- 
edge and  wisdom,  so  far  as  these  presuppose  virtue, 
and  depend  upon  it ; and  that  they  find  satisfactory 
evidence  of  this:  — 

First,  — In  that  marked  repugnance  of  the  moral 
sense  which  was  expressed  in  reference  to  an  analo- 
gous system  existing  in  this  and  other  colleges,  at  the 
time  when  that  system  was  here  abolished.  The  re- 
ligious and  moral  sensibilities  of  New  England  had, 
then,  for  several  years,  been  more  awakened  than  at 
any  period  since  the  Bevolntion.  Many  colleges  were 


21 


profoundly  affected  with  a Christian  spirit.  Much  dis- 
cussion and  criticism  occurred  among  the  more  reflect- 
ing students,  in  regard  to  philosophical  and  ethical 
tendencies  then  prevailing  in  public  institutions,  and 
their  injurious  influence  in  scholastic  life.  The  alleged 
reason  of  their  opposition  to  the  system  then  in  use, 
was  their  experience  of  its  bad  effects  upon  them- 
selves, as  measured  by  the  higher  moral  standards  to 
which  their  attention  had  been  drawn.  It  was  per- 
ceived to  stimulate  the  selfish  passions;  to  unhinge 
mutual  affection  and  confidence ; to  exalt  the  indi- 
vidual above  the  class,  and  the  class  above  the  kind. 
It  fomented  jealousies,  hatred,  vindictiveness,  disorder. 
It  proposed  a false  end  of  study  and  behavior,  — pri- 
vate interest,  — and  tempted  young  men  beyond  what 
they  were  able  to  bear,  to  the  use  of  questionable 
means  for  its  attainment,  — to  a fawning,  subservient 
spirit,  to  electioneering,  bribery,  convivial  entertain- 
ments, and  a disproportionate  culture  of  the  faculties 
on  the  part  of  some,  which  led  to  wanton  neglect  on 
the  part  of  others ; — producing,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
evils  of  gratified  ambition,  and,  on  the  other,  the 
greater  evils  of  disappointment  and  supposed  disgrace, 
which  reached  beyond  the  students  themselves  to  their 
families  and  friends.  These  evils  were  judged  to  be 
not  accidents  of  the  system,  which  wisdom  might  over- 
rule, but  essential,  because  of  the  consciously  depraved 
character  of  the  mind,  and  its  consequent  liability  to 
give  way  under  such  dangerous  pressure.  No  suf- 


IL 


22 


ficient  offsets  were  seen  in  the  improved  scholarship 
of  a few  competitors,  if,  indeed,  snch  improved  scholar- 
ship were  not  imaginary,  affected  and  not  real;  or,  if 
real,  not  attainable  equally  upon  a more  moral  system ; 
or,  as  if  a higher  general  average  of  scholarship  were 
not  more  desirable  than  the  disproportionate  advance- 
ment of  the  few  and  discouragement  of  the  many.  A 
temptation  was  thought  to  lie  in  the  way  of  teachers 
also  to  rely,  for  their  success,  rather  upon  machinery 
than  personal  exertion ; to  rest  their  reputation  rather 
on  the  forced  and  artificial  attainments  of  the  favored 
few  than  the  less  showy  but  more  healthy  products  of 
general  and  more  disinterested  labor.  On  the  whole, 
it  was  judged  by  the  young  men,  that  the  effect  of  the 
existing  system  was  to  exalt  the  intellectual  above 
the  moral,  by  a process  that  ultimately  gave  predom- 
inance to  the  selfish  passions ; and  that  college  disci- 
pline thus  became,  however  unwittingly,  an  occasion  of 
increasing  those  theological,  ethical,  political,  and  social 
disorders,  — the  sectarianism,  partyism,  intrigue,  and 
chicane,  which  are  so  commonly  revealed  in  the  mal- 
feasance of  professional  and  public  men,  when  so  edu- 
cated under  the  stimulus  of  a wrong  ambition. 

Such  was  the  sense  of  students.  It  was  not  logi- 
cally or  philosophically  expressed.  Eather  it  was  a 
matter  of  fresh  experience,  which  is  not  apt  to  take 
to  itself  the  shape  of  scientific  formularies  or  of  specu- 
lative propositions.  It  was  given  at  a time  when  they 
were  prepared  to  judge  dispassionately  of  the  prize 


23 


system ; and,  after  all  reasonable  allowances,  it  consti- 
tuted, in  the  judgment  of  the  Trustees,  no  inconsid- 
erable objection  against  it.  That  judgment  could  not, 
now,  be  reasonably  affected  by  any  different  or  con- 
trary expression,  given  in  different  circumstances  and 
different  states  of  mind.  For, 

Secondly , — It  is  justified  by  a higher  and  more 
searching  analysis. 

Accordingly,  your  Committee  go  on  to  suggest, 
in  consistency  with  past  judgments  of  the  Board : 
That  education  presupposes  men  to  be  in  an  infantile 
state  of  ignorance,  weakness,  insufficiency,  and  morally 
oblique ; and  that,  without  discipline,  they  are  inca- 
pable of  attaining  to  the  true  and  only  legitimate  ends 
of  life.  It  is  based  upon  the  facts  of  our  degraded 
nature  and  condition,  as  recorded  in  Scripture,  and 
familiar  to  the  experience  of  mankind  in  general.  It 
is  designed  to  draw  us  out  of  our  natural  state  of 
incompetency,  by  drawing  out  our  inherent  embryo 
faculties,  and  by  exciting,  guiding,  restraining,  and 
regulating  them  through  the  superior  knowledge,  wis- 
dom, and  virtue  of  the  already  educated  and  reformed. 
Its  work  is  to  train  these  faculties  in  due  proportion, 
in  harmony  with  the  natural  laws  of  mind,  and  with 
the  principles  of  moral  government,  as  known  by  natu- 
ral and  revealed  religion;  and  to  do  this  in  subservi- 
ency to  the  proper  uses  of  this  present  life,  and  to 
the  attainment,  if  that  be  the  will  of  God,  of  life  eter- 
nal, through  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  propitiation  for 


24 


the  sins  of  the  world.  Its  problem  is,  Whether  the 
teachers  and  guides  of  men  will  conduct  it,  intelli- 
gently and  resolutely,  in  subjection  to  these  principles, 
and  with  reference  to  this  design,  as  true  benefactors ; 
or  inconsiderately  pervert  it  to  the  prostitution  of  the 
human  faculties,  worse,  morally,  and  more  destructive, 
than  their  original  state  of  darkness  and  imbecility,  — 
“the  blind  leading  the  blind  till  both  fall  into  the 
ditch.” 

Let  the  question  be  in  regard  to  the  education  of 
the  individual.  He  possesses  instincts,  sensibilities, 
alfections,  tastes,  sympathies,  intellectual  and  voluntary 
powers,  and  a moral  sense.  We  put  him  into  forms, 
and  under  rules,  adapted  to  develop  and  train  these 
properties  of  his  nature.  The  work  is  slow,  tedious, 
and  uncertain.  It  is  hindered  by  various  physical  and 
moral  causes,  beyond  our  foresight  or  control.  The 
imperfection  of  nature  is  manifest  at  every  stage. 
Accidental  difficulties  in  the  social  state  thicken  upon 
us,  and  aggravate  our  embarrassments.  We  adopt 
diverse  expedients  to  quicken  the  languid  powers,  to 
correct  irregularities,  restrain  the  wayward  propensities, 
and  check  the  tendencies  to  decline.  But  the  best 
success  falls  short  of  effort  or  expectation.  The  subject 
never  attains  to  a degree  of  culture  commensurate  with 
his  capacities,  or  his  means  of  growth.  Of  this  he  is 
himself  at  length  convinced;  and  he  dies  confessing 
that  he  has  come  short  in  all  things,  not  having  profited, 
as  he  should  have  done,  by  the  little  he  has  learned,  or 


25 


corrected  half  the  errors  into  which  defective  teaching, 
or  his  own  folly  or  vanity,  had  betrayed  him.  In 
respect  to  the  race  in  general,  the  progress  is  equally 
tardy,  inadequate,  and  doubtful,  except  so  far  as  God 
interposes  special  means  and  motives  to  enlightenment 
in  different  periods,  and  superadds  the  influences  of  his 
Spirit.  What  is  gained  in  one  age  or  country  is  lost 
in  another.  Nations  rise  and  fall.  The  resuscitation 
of  the  effete  is  at  best  partial  and  insecure,  and,  in 
respect  to  the  generality,  has  thus  far  been  found 
impossible.  Should  a spirit  of  unbelief  and  apostasy 
overspread  the  Christian  world,  as  is  clearly  supposable 
and  possible,  our  only  hope  of  its  restitution  would  be 
in  new  and  more  signal  manifestations  of  Divine  power. 
Education,* however  perfect  or  diffused,  could  not  save 
any  people  that  should  obscure  the  light  from  heaven. 
Its  greatest  stimulus  would  but  more  extend  the  sway 
of  sophistry,  falsehood,  and  licentiousness,  and  hasten 
the  necessary  catastrophe  ; — as  all  history  confirms. 

Defective  methods  of  education  have  always  been 
reckoned  among  the  causes  of  the  slow  progress,  and 
the  ultimate  decline,  of  States.  The  degree  of  defec- 
tiveness has  been  wisely  held  to  be  measurable  by  the 
preponderance  of  the  material  and  intellectual,  over 
the  moral,  culture  of  the  young.  As  they  have  gained 
in  stature  and  knowledge,  they  have  lost  in  simplicity 
and  virtue.  Wanting,  or  possessing  in  undue  measure, 
the  conservatism  of  truth  and  rectitude,  they  have 
used  their  increased  intelligence  and  power  but  to 

4 


26 


popularize  destructive  errors  and  vices ; and  ruin  has 
ensued.  So  Paul  accounts  for  the  overthrow  of  pagan 
States,  and  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth;  and  his 
reasoning  applies  with  greater  emphasis  to  the  anti- 
christian  learning  of  later  times.  Prostituted  Christian 
nations  would  experience  only  an  aggravation  of  j udg- 
ment  for  their  abuse  of  a greater  light.  There  are  not 
wanting  proofs  or  presages  of  these  evils  in  the  present 
atheistic  tendencies  of  the  most  cultivated  portions  of 
the  Christian  world,  and  the  general  confusions  and 
distress  of  nations.  A studious  and  devout  critic  of 
the  present  state  of  things  would  not  fail  to  scrutinize 
the  insidious  action  of  these  bad  moral  causes,  or  to 
he  jealous,  in  his  own  sphere,  of  every  particular  and 
local  influence  that  would  add,  though  but  a little,  to 
their  intensity,  and  aggravate  their  results. 

It  might  seem,  on  a partial  view,  a small  thing,  if 
not  invidious,  to  suggest  that  the  prize  system  now  in 
question  would  naturally  have,  in  its  measure,  that 
hurtful  tendency.  But  the  reasons  for  that  belief, 
which  led  to  the  decision  of  the  Trustees,  in  years  past, 
in  a parallel  case,  have  certainly  not  been  lessened  by 
any  subsequent  improvement  in  the  moral  or  religious 
character  of  society.  On  the  contrary,  the  unpre- 
cedented excitement  and  overgrowth  of  the  material 
and  intellectual  elements  of  the  present  civilization 
have  not  been  slow  or  imperceptible.  The  insufficiency 
of  moral  power  to  control  and  limit  them,  as  things 
now  are  throughout  the  Christian  world,  is  becoming 


27 


more  and  more  the  burden  of  forecasting  statesmen, 
and  even  of  simple-minded  observers,  who  have  marked 
the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  a single  gener- 
ation. The  odds  is  getting  to  be  fearfully  against  us, 
except  as  we  borrow  hope  from  our  speculative  ideas, 
rather  than  our  experience.  If,  therefore,  the  thing 
be  small,  it  may  nevertheless  be  real;  and  its  principle 
may  well  he  thought  to  concern  the  best  interests,  not 
of  a single  College  only,  but  of  mankind. 

Your  Committee  would  not  be  understood  to  imply 
that  there  are  no  elements  and  principles  of  nature, 
broken  and  disordered  though  it  be,  to  which  appeal 
should  be  made  in  stimulating  the  oppressed  energies 
of  the  young.  They  have  no  sympathy  with  extreme 
and  radical  or  onesided  views  on  this  or  any  other 
subject.  That  any  educational  institution  or  system 
may  attain  to  its  proper  ends,  its  order  should  have 
respect  to  a proportionate  discipline  of  all  the  faculties, 
by  methods  pertinent  to  each.  But  the  successful 
culture  of  any  or  every  faculty  will  depend  on  a 
superior  controlling  principle  common  to  the  whole. 
A general  right  effect  presupposes  a general  rectifying 
cause.  Otherwise  we  have  derangement  and  confusion ; 
the  higher  and  the  lower  principles  are  likely  to  change 
places;  if,  indeed,  that  which  should  of  right  govern 
be  not  ultimately  overthrown.  In  searching  for  that 
common  principle,  we  shall  best  resolve  the  difficult 
questions  now  in  hand.  Let  the  inquiry,  though  some- 
what prolonged,  be  pardoned,  for  the  sake  of  important 


28 


distinctions  too  often  overlooked,  as  well  as  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  ends  in  view. 

(1)  Your  Committee  turn,  first,  from  that  extreme 
opinion  which  has  held  the  masses  of  mankind  as  merely 
brutish,  and  denied  them  any  capability  of  culture  but 
such  as  nature  teaches  for  savage  beasts ; for,  though 
there  have  been  seeming  grounds  for  that  opinion  in 
the  uncouth  wildness  of  many  of  the  more  degraded 
portions  of  the  race,  it  applies  not  where  natural  or 
revealed  religion  has  had  but  the  smallest  influence 
in  opening  the  intellect,  or  guiding  the  consciences,  of 
men ; and  it  should  never  have  been  acted  upon,  even 
among  the  most  besotted  cannibals.  There  are  few 
so  lost  but  that  some  remaining  sense  of  what  is  lost 
may  be  reached  by  wise  and  benevolent  appeals,  and 
made  to  struggle  up  towards  the  light  that  should  so 
shed  but  its  faintest  ray  into  the  darkened  chambers 
of  the  soul.  So  Christ  has  sometimes  saved  whom  men 
have  cast  away. 

(2)  Nor  need  we  have  more  respect  to  those  soul- 
less teachers  of  the  world  who  treat  society  but  as  a 
machine  to  be  wound  up,  and  kept  in  play,  and  put 
on  exhibition,  for  the  mere  profit  of  the  showmen. 
There  are  such  even  where  there  is  great  affectation 
of  high  refinement.  But  such  discipline  is  a mere 
polish  of  wheels  and  levers.  We  have  seen  a model 
school  after  this  type  of  formal  excellence : and  so 
have  we  seen  a model  puppet-show.  But  the  puppet- 
show  had  this  advantage,  that  it  degraded  not  rational 


29 


and  moral  beings  to  the  functions  of  automatons ; and 
the  automatons  did  their  work  with  more  precision 
and  eclat.  They  had  not  the  drawback  of  a spirit 
hampered  by  the  wires.  There  was  no  disturbance 
between  a nature  within  and  a nature  without,  and, 
consequently,  no  care  was  requisite  to  keep  a bal- 
ance. Such  artificial  teachers,  and  their  rote,  are  not 
to  be  accounted  of.  To  them  even  Christ  is  not  likely 
to  appeal ; for  his  mission  is  to  souls. 

(3)  Still  less  is  it  needful  to  discuss  that  more 
extreme  and  ethereal  specific  which  many  now  pro- 
pose for  the  education  and  recovery  of  mankind, — 
a general  emancipation  of  the  human  faculties,  and 
corresponding  changes  in  all  the  institutions  of  the 
social  state;  a mere  voluntary  system,  a stimulating 
' phlogiston  of  speculative  subtleties,  to  quicken  the  cir- 
culations, and  not  a de  facto  regimen  and  discipline 
for  disordered  minds.  They  would  dissolve  the  moulds 
in  which,  as  they  imagine,  man’s  heaven-born  genius 
has  been  unnaturally  shaped,  and  the  trammels  by 
which  it  has  been  restrained  and  paralyzed.  But  they 
propose  no  practicable  substitute.  They  would  extend 
the  area  of  the  irresistible  spirit  of  universal  liberty, 
that  it  might  assert  the  constitutional  prerogatives  of  a 
self-determined  will,  and,  peradventure,  reach  the  des- 
tined goal  of  universal  happiness.  The  manifold  dif- 
ficulties, hazards,  and  consequences  of  failure,  concern 
them  not.  But  before  this  Board  or  these  Memorial- 
ists it  would  he  an  insult  to  discuss  this  chimerical 


30 


idea.  They  have  not  so  read  the  Scripture,  nor  studied 
men.  They  would  not  consent  to  see  a principle  set 
up  on  the  earth  which  was  not  recognized  in  heaven, 
and  which,  when  strangely  introduced  among  the  sin- 
less inhabitants  of  that  world,  subjected  the  deceived 
among  them  to  everlasting  chains  and  darkness. 

(4)  Shall  we  find  what  we  seek  in  taste,  and  make 
that  natural  sense  our  motive  power  ? 

We  recognize  this  faculty  in  all  our  discipline,  and 
we  place  no  inconsiderable  reliance  upon  its  culture, 
as  a means  to  a higher  good ; not  now,  however,  accord- 
ing to  its  philosophical  and  abstract  idea,  but  only  as 
it  actually  exists  in  the  present  abnormal  state  of  our 
active  powers.  This  distinction  is  of  great  conse- 
quence ; for,  in  educating  men,  we  must  take  things, 
not  as  they  existed  originally  in  the  Divine  idea,  or 
as  they  came  out  from  the  creative  hand,  but  as  Scrip- 
ture represents,  and  experience  proves,  them  to  be, 
and  to  have  been,  in  the  life  and  history  of  mankind. 
The  susceptibility  of  taste  exists  in  nature ; but  it  is 
practically  of  small  account,  except  as  it  has  the  mas- 
ter’s training.  The  masters  themselves  possess  it  but 
unequally.  Their  training  is  unequal ; and  their  meth- 
ods and  their  schools  are  as  various  as  the  latitudes. 
It  is,  therefore,  not  reducible  to  a common  standard. 
It  consequently  wants  both  precision  and  authority ; 
and,  at  best,  it  could  not  be  an  effectual  guide.  It 
may  come  in  to  relieve  and  to  assist  the  related  facul- 
ties ; but  not  to  rule  them ; nor  be  suffered  to  over- 


31 


step  its  own  domain,  which  is  not  of  the  inner,  but 
the  outer,  world.  It  is  conversant  but  with  the  beau- 
ties and  deformities  of  things,  their  fitnesses  and  incon- 
gruities, which  speak  sensuously  to  the  mind ; but  not 
with  essences  and  principles,  — realities  which  are 
known  only  by  a higher  consciousness.  It  deals  not 
with  substances,  but  with  forms  and  shadows;  not  the 
conscious  and  living  powers,  but  their  phenomena. 
Taste,  though  in  its  highest  culture  it  might  prepare 
us  to  admire  all  the  beautiful  works  of  God,  or  to  be 
ravished  with  their  glorious  symphonies,  could  not 
bring  us  into  harmony  with  God  himself.  It  could 
not  produce  virtue,  but  its  semblance ; nor  knowledge 
or  wisdom ; but  only  representations  of  their  effects  as 
they  strike  the  admiring  intellect.  But  the  highest 
culture  of  this  faculty  is  not  now  possible,  because  of 
the  infirmities  of  sense.  A vitiated,  sensuous  nature  is 
likely  to  pervert  it,  and  consequently  to  enslave  us 
to  false  standards  and  ideas,  from  which  deliverance 
could  be  had  only  by  the  predominance  of  a higher 
principle,  — a deliverance  which  would  be  cheaply  pur- 
chased at  the  expense  of  all  the  bewitching  beauty 
and  syren  music  that  had  enthralled  us.  This  faculty, 
when  cultivated  on  its  own  account  and  without  sub- 
jection to  a higher  principle,  becomes  necessarily  false ; 
and  then,  in  respect  to  true  knowledge,  wisdom,  and 
virtue,  it  is  worse  than  rudeness.  The  pagan  nations 
were  tasteful,  but  immoral.  They  depressed  nature, 
and  exalted  art.  They  changed  the  glory  of  the 


32 


incorruptible  God  into  graven  images.  They  built 
magnificent  altars  and  gorgeous  temples,  and  offered 
various  and  costly  sacrifices ; but  the  Godhead  was 
unknown.  The  essential  element  even  of  natural  ex- 
cellence was  wanting.  Wherefore  those  nations  fell; 
and  their  ruin  was  proportioned  to  their  former  gran- 
deur. Esthetics  could  not  save  them.  ^Esthetics  is 
of  sense;  and  sense  cannot  save.  Esthetics,  without 
a higher  principle,  is  presently  dragged  down  from  its 
constitutional  simplicity.  It  loses  what  remains  of  its 
created  dignity,  and  becomes  a pander  to  the  baser 
appetites.  It  prostitutes  knowledge  and  wisdom  to 
adorn  and  popularize  licentiousness  and  vice ; to  dress 
up  deformity;  to  give  graceful  attitudes  and  manners 
to  profligacy  and  crime  ; till  the  evil  reaches  its  clim- 
acteric, and  the  idolatrous  people  are  hurled  to  the 
ground.  Such  is  history  from  the  beginning. 

They  make  a great  mistake  who  imagine  that  aes- 
thetics has  any  healing  or  conserving  power;  or  that, 
without  a higher  principle,  it  will  not  more  corrupt  us ; 
or  that,  with  a higher  principle,  it  is  not  likely,  as 
things  are,  without  great  restraint,  to  obscure  that 
higher  principle,  enfeeble  it,  and  usurp  its  place.  • Ex- 
perience confirms  that  when  the  educational  stimulus 
is  applied  to  taste,  it  produces  not  simple,  honest,  and 
sincere,  but  meretricious  and  fantastic,  men ; not  a 
chaste  bride  of  Christ,  but  a scarlet  woman ; not  a 
manly  and  vigorous,  but  luxurious,  effeminate,  and  rot- 


33 


ten  state ; till  church  and  state  fall  into  the  same 
slough  together.  A College  could  not  be  saved  by  art. 
Art  is  outside  of  heart,  where  true  virtue  only  can  reside. 
Art  becomes  artful,  artificial,  then  superficial,  then  a 
mere  vapor,  a painted  cloud.  Artlessness  is  better. 
“ Whose  adorning  let  it  not  be  outward,  but  inward, 
the  ornament  of  a meek  and  quiet  spirit.”  Otherwise 
the  man  is  made  for  show,  and  not  for  use  ; not  for  pro- 
duct, but  effect.  Feathers  are  sometimes  beautiful ; but 
they  more  become  a peacock  than  a student.  Clothes, 
orderly,  clean,  well  made,  and  comely,  are  a good, 
when  they  are  not  dainty,  and  are  paid  for.  A sloven 
and  an  exquisite  are  equally  contemptible.  But,  a good 
teacher  is  of  greater  consequence  than  a good  tailor. 
There  is  no  comparison  between  a Chesterfield  and  an 
Arnold,  as  teachers  or  models  of  society. 

(5)  Or  shall  we  make  our  appeal  to  any,  and  the 
most  comprehensive,  sense  of  honor  ? Yet  we  are  fore- 
closed from  appealing  now  to  honor  as  it  belongs  to 
God,  to  a perfect  state ; the  honor  which  was  before 
shame  entered  ; the  honor  which  will  be  when  virtue 
shall  return ; the  honor  which  is  but  ideal  in  the  present 
state.  Man  was  created  in  honor,  but  he  did  not  abide. 
What  he  now  calls  honor  may  be  his  shame.  At  best, 
it  is  not  a safe  reliance.  There  are  generous,  humane, 
disinterested,  and  noble  sentiments  in  the  human  mind. 
We  look  upon  and  love  them.  They  respond  to  gen- 
erous appeals.  They  subserve  important  ends  in  carrying 

5 


34 


on  the  work  of  life.  But  they  are  mere  sentiments,  that 
depend  on  temperament ; not  principles,  that  are  vital 
in  the  soul.  Honor  gives  many  signs  of  its  Divine 
original.  Every  thing  that  lives  and  is  sensitive  on 
earth  turns  sometimes  to  the  sun,  and  reflects  his 
beams.  But  whatever  has  lost  not  relationship,  but 
affinity,  to  light,  drinks  it  not  in,  but  reflects  it  only  in 
unsubstantial  colors,  that  fade  in  a night ; and  it  perishes 
in  its  own  treacherous  aroma.  Honor,  whatever  it  be 
in  story  or  in  song,  in  chivalry  or  diplomacy,  in  warlike 
hosts  or  courtly  halls,  in  ermine,  tiara,  diadem,  or 
sceptre,  has  never  saved.  It  has  been  brought  down 
to  the  dust  with  the  sound  of  its  viols.  It  has  never 
saved  a College.  Some  of  its  most  pleasant  flowers 
spring  in  college  halls.  They  are  good  to  look  upon, 
and  have  their  uses.  They  remind  us  of  paradise. 
They  make  the  good  man  long  for  its  return.  But 
the  wind  sweeps  over  them,  and  they  are  gone.  Per- 
haps, when  next  we  look,  disorder  reigns.  The  flowers 
have  perished.  The  precious  fruits  are  threatened. 
Evil,  with  its  blasts  and  mildews,  balks  our  better  pur- 
poses, and  disappoints  our  hopes.  Does  honor  then  re- 
store ? Does  it  not,  by  mournful  misdirection,  increase 
the  evil  and  prevent  recovery  ? Idleness,  disorder,  vice, 
are  not  afraid  of  college  honor.  They  feel  assured  of 
concealment  and  protection  under  its  broad  shadow. 
The  greatest  weakness  of  teachers  and  governors  every- 
where is  the  great  strength  of  honor  that  covers  up 
or  mitigates  transgression,  or  pleads  against  its  righteous 


35 


punishment,  or  resents  the  infliction  with  foul  disorders. 
Honor  goes  forth  from  college  halls  true  to  its  false 
ideas;  not  to  the  general,  but  the  particular  ; not  to 
virtue,  but  interest ; not  to  God,  but  some  fiction  of 
humanity.  Yet  it  is  true,  not  to  man  in  general,  but 
to  a party ; not  to  a party,  but  a clique ; and,  in  the 
last  reduction,  not  to  a clique,  but  the  ultimate  and 
supreme  first  personal.  Honor  fights  its  battles,  not 
with  argument,  but  personal  abuse ; and  strikes  back, 
not  with  words,  hut  blows.  It  embroils  man  with  man, 
nation  with  nation ; and  the  earth  must  smoke  with 
ca#nage,  that  honor  may  have  its  glory.  A Christian 
educator  would  be  afraid  to  rely  upon  it  in  the  disci- 
pline of  the  young.  There  are  moods  in  which  he  may 
approach  it  with  effect.  But  he  is  dishonored  if  he  has 
no  better  hold  when  the  humor  turns. 

(6)  Or  shall  the  appeal  be  made  to  ambition,  akin 
to  honor,  or  to  emulation,  — ambition  set  on  fire  ? 

Some  lexicographers  have  ascribed  a good  as  well 
as  a bad  sense  to  these  active  principles.  In  popular 
discourse  they  are  apt  to  be  held  as  virtues.  In  educa- 
tional training  they  are  used  as  legitimate  forces  by  the 
generality  in  our  schools  of  learning.  But,  aside  from 
all  refinements  of  philosophical  definition  or  of  mere 
speculation,  your  Committee  are  compelled  to  believe, 
that,  practically,  in  relation  to  a prize  system  at  a 
College,  and  in  a more  comprehensive  sense,  they  are 
mere  vices  of  the  mind,  and  are  not  to  be  encouraged. 
For  the  object  then  proposed  is  not  the  greatest  good 


36 


of  the  individual  or  the  institution,  but  the  best  scholar- 
ship ; and  the  best  scholarship,  not  as  a means  to  the 
greatest  good,  but  the  highest  distinction  ; not  the  merit 
which  is  essential  to  character  on  the  whole,  but  the 
reputation  which  is  incidental  to  some  variety  of  intel- 
lectual cultivation ; not  the  recompense  of  reward 
which  comes  as  a general  consequence  of  virtue,  but 
that  which  crowns  a successful  struggle^,  carried  on  at 
the  expense  of  virtue.  The  appeal  is  made,  not  to  a 
love  of  essential  excellence,  but  of  personal  preeminence. 
The  stimulus  is  felt  in  the  wrong  place  ; not  in  the 
sense  of  duty,  but  the  sense  of  interest ; and  its  elfect 
is  to  encourage  not  meekness,  which  is  the  ordained 
prerequisite  of  true  wisdom,  but  the  proud  and  con- 
ceited egotism  which  goes  before  destruction.  Where- 
fore the  ultimate  consequence  disappoints  us.  It  con- 
sists not  in  growth,  but  inflation ; not  in  a sterling, 
generous,  and  comprehensive  culture,  but  an  over- 
wrought activity  of  some  special  faculty,  and  a wither- 
ing of  more  vital  energies ; and  the  end  is  the  possible 
attachment  to  one’s  name  of  a string  of  fardels,  to  the 
derogation  of  the  properties  of  essential  manhood.  By 
insensible  degrees  these  bad  results  pass  over  from  the 
individual  to  the  many.  Society  is  betrayed  to  an 
exaltation  of  the  seeming  above  the  real,  the  shadow 
above  the  substance,  the  clothes  above  the  man.  A 
civilization  which  is  merely  gorgeous,  fantastic,  imposing, 
delusive,  without  a basis,  is  dignified  as  if  it  possessed 
the  conservative  and  enduring  elements  of  righteousness 


37 


and  truth.  When  the  best  scholar  is  the  best  man 
because  receiving  the  best  rewards,  then  the  most 
cunning  orator,  the  richest  merchant,  the  most  ingen- 
ious mechanic,  the  smoothest  gentleman,  the  most 
curious  artist,  the  sweetest  singer,  the  most  accom- 
plished dancer,  and  the  smartest  preacher,  are,  pari 
ratione,  the  best  men.  He  who  raises  the  best  horses, 
sheep,  or  cattle,  the  fattest  swine,  the  largest  crops,  or 
the  juiciest  fruit,  is  a better  man  than  his  godly  neigh- 
bor who  despises  not  the  day  of  smaller  things.  Society 
is  led  insensibly  to  exalt  a false  and  sensuous  standard, 
and  goes  on  towards  its  illusory  perfection,  till  God’s 
order  is  quite  reversed,  and  the  reckoning  comes. 
Babylon  towers  above  Jerusalem,  and  sittetln as  a queen, 
and  drinks  its  wine  out  of  the  vessels  of  the  house  of 
the  Lord,  till  “ Mene,  Mene,  Tekel,  Upharsin,”  is  written 
upon  the  wall.  So  our  Colleges  might  become,  through 
a mistaken  principle,  like  the  schools  of  the  overthrown 
nations,  the  patrons  of  popular  delusion,  and  the  disguised 
sources  of  destruction.  Ambition  brings  them  down. 

These  distinctions  are  of  great  importance.  It  is 
one  thing  to  aspire  to  true  excellence  for  its  own  sake, 
and  receive,  as  a natural  consequence,  the  providential 
recompense  of  patient  continuance  in  well-doing.  It 
is  a very  different  thing  to  aspire  to  relative  excellence 
for  the  sake  of  a factitious  prize.  The  mistake  of  con- 
founding these  distinctions  could  not  be  more  mis- 
chievous than  in  the  discipline  of  the  young.  In  the 
good  sense  of  ambition  and  emulation,  — if,  indeed,  it  be 


38 


not  a solecism  to  affix  a good  sense  to  these  principles 
of  our  nature  as  it  is,  — a College  might  be  supposed 
a resort  of  earnest,  enterprising,  and  successful  students. 
But  it  would  not  become,  — as  in  the  bad  sense,  which, 
as  things  are,  is  the  practical  and  true  sense,  it  must 
naturally  become,  — their  race-ground.  They  would 
imitate  the  old  athletes , as  Paul  enjoins,  not  in  their 
spirit,  but  in  their  systematic  and  self-denying  discipline. 
They  would  bring  their  body  into  subjection,  that  they 
might  better  cultivate  their  higher  faculties.  They 
would  so  run  that  they  might  attain  not  necessarily 
to  a distinguished  name,  but  a substantial  character ; 
not  to  a high  position,  but  the  qualities  which  deserve 
it ; not  to  the  material,  but  the  vital  and  essential ; not 
to  the  earthly,  but  the  heavenly.  They  would  train 
themselves  to  labor  or  to  suffer  in  the  pursuit  of  good, 
and  pursue  it  unto  death,  consenting  even  to  the  fiery 
baptism  of  our  Lord ; but  asking  not,  like  the  foolish 
mother  for  her  children,  that  they  might  sit  on  his 
right  hand  and  on  his  left,  — which  he  gives  not  to 
any  who  ask  it  for  preeminence.  That  false  spirit 
wo uld  be  fatal ; and  He  who  knows  wdiat  is  in  man 
well  knew  how  to  rebuke  it  in  his  disciples : “ And 
Jesus  called  a little  child  unto  him,  and  said,  Except 
ye  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.”  And  Paul : “ If  any  man 

among  you  thinketh  to  be  wise  in  this  world,  let  him 
become  a fool  that  he  may  be  wise.” 

Whatever  be  the  true  account  of  the  actual  character 


39 


of  mankind,  it  cannot  be  denied  but  by  romantic  per- 
sons and  stayers  at  home,  that  selfishness  is  our  motive 
power,  and  sways  us  till  it  is  checked  by  the  simple 
force  of  moral  principle,  or  is  superseded  by  a divine 
life.  Christianity  presupposes  this ; and,  otherwise,  has 
no  distinctive  significancy  above  the  theories  of  natural- 
ism, old  or  new.  But  selfishness,  and  that  particular 
variety  of  it  which  affects  greatness  and  preeminence, 
is  everywhere  destructive.  Disorganization  is  its  law. 
It  broke  up  the  order  of  heaven  : “ By  that  sin  fell  the 
angels.”  It  has,  in  every  period,  filled  the  world  with 
controversies  and  wars,  and  brought  upon  it  correspond- 
ing judgments  of  outraged  nature  in  pestilence  and 
famine.  The  Scripture  so  describes  it,  in  no  measured 
terms,  as  producing  u hatred,  variance,  emulations, 
wrath,  strife,  seditions,  heresies,  envyings,  murders,  and 
such  like.”  And  the  offsets  are  not  worth  mentioning. 
They  make  but  little  figure  when  accounts  are  settled. 
Suppose  an  ambitious  and  emulous  student  just  follow- 
ing this  bent  of  the  deceitful  mind.  He  will  be  more 
assiduous,  probably,  for  a time,  than  his  better  balanced 
neighbor,  and  seem  greater  on  occasions.  But  he  will 
work  unequally,  according  to  his  humors,  and  dispro- 
portionately, according  to  his  policy,  plying  such  facul- 
ties or  such  branches  only  as  will  best  suit  his  ends. 
He  will  be  orderly  even  to  a fault  when  his  formalities 
may  be  reckoned  to  the  account  of  virtue,  and  contribute 
to  his  success.  He  will  be  fawning,  truckling,  subser- 


40 


vient,  sycophantic,  till  he  gains  his  place  ; but  will  then 
fold  his  arms,  and  be  insolent  and  overbearing.  Or,  if 
he  succeed  not,  he  will  subside  into  indifference  and 
sloth,  or  be  chafed  to  madness.  No  passion  is  more 
engrossing  or  consuming  than  disappointed  ambition. 
It  will  make  a wreck,  for  a time,  even  of  a good  man, 
and  curdle  all  the  milk  within  him.  He  will  produce 
an  acetous  fermentation  in  the  whole  mass  with  which 
he  happens  to  be  connected.  The  career  of  such  men 
is  revolting  to  the  ingenuous  and  virtuous  mind.  In 
its  results  it  becomes  fatal  to  society,  except  as  re- 
strained by  the  collateral  influence  of  wiser  and  better 
men.  In  a free,  impassioned,  and  aspiring  country 
like  our  own,  the  evil  soonest  culminates.  Sects, 
parties,  cliques,  and  coteries,  which  such  ill-taught 
persons  lead  and  represent,  insensibly  multiply,  to  the 
utter  bewilderment  and  exasperation  of  the  state,  till 
disorganization  and  overturning  ensue.  Not  so  Christ 
taught  his  disciples : “ Ye  call  me  Master  and  Lord, 
and  so  I am.  If  I,  then,  your  Lord  and  Master,  have 
washed  your  feet,  ye  also  ought  to  wash  one  another’s 
feet.  For  I have  given  you  an  example,  that  ye  should 
do  as  I have  done  to  you.”  We  may  not,  indeed, 
expect  such  virtue  to  be  universal,  with  our  best  dis- 
cipline, as  things  are  at  present.  But,  equally,  we  can 
never  expect  the  present  state  of  things  to  be  improved 
if  society  be  educated  with  a different  spirit.  What 
is  inconsistent  with  a true  Christianity  cannot  be  favor- 
able to  a legitimate  progress  of  mankind  ; and  we  do 


41 


not  well,  by  the  use  of  merely  speculative  and  fanciful 
methods  of  progress,  to  perpetuate  real  and  essential 
elements  of  decline. 

(7)  Your  Committee  are  able  to  see  no  reason  for 
appealing,  in  education,  to  these  questionable  principles 
of  nature,  but  their  admitted  great  activity,  and  the 
supposed  insufficiency  of  any  higher  principles  to  pro- 
duce the  desired  stimulus.  But  it  deserves  to  be  con- 
sidered, whether  there  be  not  principles  in  nature  itself 
which,  if  not  now  so  active  in  general,  are  yet  stronger, 
more  authoritative,  and  more  legitimate ; and  whether 
their  acknowledged  comparative  inactivity  be  not  owing 
to  defective  systems  and  methods  of  discipline,  which  the 
guardians  of  our  public  institutions  should  correct. 
Such  corrective  attempts  have  sometimes  been  made, 
and,  when  made  consistently  and  thoroughly,  never,  it 
is  believed,  without  success.  Already  the  introduction 
of  a higher  ethics  to  many  Colleges  has  given  to  stu- 
dents the  taste  of  a purer  morality  than  was  inculcated 
in  the  text-books  of  their  fathers.  The  doctrines  of 
Butler  and  Edwards  have  gone  far  to  supplant  the  more 
sensuous  theories  which,  for  a long  season,  had  fore- 
stalled them.  The  moral  awakening  of  students  above 
referred  to  in  this  Report  resulted,  in  great  measure, 
from  the  insensible  influence  of  the  change ; and  it  is 
not  to  be  doubted  that  a course  of  general  discipline, 
corresponding  to  the  higher  ethical  ideas  now  exten- 
sively admitted,  would  result  in  proportionally  extensive 
and  lasting  benefits.  It  could  not  be  thought  otherwise 

6 


42 


without  disparaging  the  design  and  influence  of  educa- 
tion in  genera],  and  distrusting  the  good  providence  of 
God. 

When  the  change  of  system  at  this  College  received 
the  last  sanction  of  the  Trustees,  it  was  under  the  pro- 
found conviction  of  those  on  whom  the  responsibility 
of  administration  chiefly  rested,  and  who  had  given 
careful  attention  to  the  subject,  that  consistency  required 
it,  and  that,  otherwise,  the  incongruity  between  what 
was  taught  and  what  was  practised  would  be  deeply 
injurious  to  all  parties.  The  principles  had  been  ad- 
mitted, and  were  given  out  as  authoritative,  that,  in  all 
discipline,  the  intellectual  has,  of  right,  no  precedency 
above  the  moral ; that  not  philosophy,  but  Scripture, 
is  the  guide  of  life ; that  the  conscience  is  constitution- 
ally supreme  over  all  the  natural  faculties ; and,  when 
taught  by  natural  and  revealed  religion,  with  the  con- 
current testimony  of  Christian  teachers  and  their  con- 
sistent administration  of  affairs,  produces  the  most 
wholesome  excitement  of  the  intellectual  powers,  and 
the  best  restraint  of  the  appetites  and  passions.  It  was 
judged  that  no  legalized  departure  from  these  princi- 
ples could  be  justifiable  or  safe;  and  no  fears  were 
entertained  that  a persistent  integrity  would  fail  to 
secure  to  the  College  whatever  favor  or  patronage 
would  be  most  conducive  to  its  essential  usefulness  and 
enduring  prosperity.  That  confidence  has  not  been 
disappointed.  Good  hopes  have  even  been  exceeded. 
The  College  has  gained  real  and  great  advantages ; and 


43 


these  are  referable,  in  no  small  degree,  to  its  firm  but 
courteous  and  circumspect  adherence  to  such  elementary 
ideas,  and  to  the  blessing  of  God  attendant  upon  an 
honest  deference  to  his  will.  After  such  experience, 
your  Committee  would  hesitate  even  to  seem  to  change 
position.  They  would  greatly  deprecate  a return, 
though  partial,  that  should  be  really  a return  to  a lower 
platform.  They  still  doubt  not,  that,  while  the  discipline 
of  College  is  kept  in  harmony  with  the  principles  recog- 
nized and  taught  in  its  accepted  classics,  and  more 
especially  enjoined  in  Scripture,  its  design  will  be  meas- 
urably answered,  and  its  prosperity  be  sure.  But, 
contrarily,  any  repugnance  between  theory  and  practice, 
though  possibly  productive  of  occasional  and  temporary 
reliefs  from  difficulties  incident  to  any  and  every  con- 
dition, would  engender  greater  difficulties,  which  no 
antecedent  reckoning  could  measure,  and  no  administra- 
tive ability  could  overcome.  A false  ethical  idea,  practi- 
cally admitted  in  the  training  of  the  young,  is  apt  to 
draw  after  it  a train  of  injurious  consequences,  which 
at  length  defies  resistance  and  precludes  recovery.  It 
may  be  confidently  affirmed,  though  not  without  hazard 
of  reproach,  that  a disproportionate  stimulus  of  the 
intellect,  and  a contrary  undervaluing  of  moral  disci- 
pline, have  already  overspread  society  with  those  varieties 
of  instinctive,  sentimental,  inductive,  speculative,  and 
spiritualistic  unbelief,  — the  many  phases  of  false  phi- 
losophy, — the  pride  and  boast  of  a towering  rationalism, 
— which,  under  the  color  and  promise  of  reform,  threaten 


44 


speedier  and  more  fatal  dissolution ; for  they  virtually 
exclude  God  from  his  own  universe,  and  forbid  his 
children,  on  the  highest  pains  and  penalties,  to  sound 
an  alarm. 

Your  Committee  judge  that  a proper  education  of 
the  conscience  of  students  ■would  secure  the  best  pos- 
sible exercise  of  all  the  facilities,  and  the  highest  useful- 
ness and  dignity  of  a College,  short  of  what  God  only 
can  effect.  It  is  our  best  natural  reliance,  so  consti- 
tuted and  ordained,  by  which  God  himself  holds  and 
moves  and  trains  us  during  our  term  of  discipleship 
and  probation  in  the  present  world ; and  it  is  vain  to 
affect  a higher  wisdom  than  the  Divine.  The  con- 
science is  susceptible,  responsive,  tractable.  Education, 
rightly  conducted,  draws  it  out,  first,  midst,  last ; and  it 
is  enthroned.  It  subordinates  all  other  principles,  — the 
instincts,  tastes,  sentiments,  imaginations ; or,  so  far  as 
they  are  legitimate,  uses  them  for  its  higher  ends.  It 
is  a regulator,  a balance,  keeping  in  due  and  propor- 
tionate activity  all  other  functions  of  the  mind.  It  holds 
its  disorderly  principles  in  check.  It  is  as  the  power 
of  gravity  preserving  the  spheres  in  orbit.  Without  it 
they  would  rush,  and  dissolution  would  ensue.  We  can 
imagine  no  sufficient  substitute ; and  to  attempt  a sub- 
stitute, except  the  higher  and  supernatural  principle 
of  love,  would  be  like  scattering  moonshine  through 
the  realms  of  space  to  keep  the  spheres  in  order.  All 
reform,  without  a moral  principle,  produces  but  a wrorse 
reaction,  — as  experience  would  better  teach,  philan- 


45 


thropy,  if  that  were  not  so  slow  to  entertain  any 
thing  but  its  own  chimerical  ideas.  We  can  drive, 
amuse,  and  flatter  men;  we  can  allure  them  by  pleas- 
ant sights  and  sounds;  or  scare  them  by  bugbears 
and  chimeras;  or  overpower  their  confused  intellects 
by  specious  sophistries ; or  captivate  their  morbid  fan- 
cies by  transcendental  visions,  or  alleged  messages  from 
the  spirit-world ; and  thereby  relieve  an  occasional  dis- 
tress, or  produce  a momentary  exhilaration,  a livelier 
action  of  the  mind,  or  a general  agitation  of  society. 
But  this  is  of  no  account,  at  best,  in  comparison  with  a 
carefully  educated  sense  of  right  and  wrong ; and,  at 
the  worst  and  most  likely,  it  annuls  or  stupefies  or  per- 
verts the  conscience,  and  results  in  general  derange- 
ment. Or,  if  we  combine  these  heterogeneous  forces,  or 
let  them  change  works  in  the  education  and  govern- 
ment of  the  world,  we  paralyze  the  strong  arm ; we 
disorder  the  foundations ; and,  in  the  long  run,  lose 
the  very  benefits  that  were  proposed  in  adopting  the 
specious  compromise. 

Society  everywhere  is  bad ; the  conscience  is  greatly 
blinded,  and  at  best  opposes  but  a feeble  barrier  to 
the  prejudices  and  passions  of  men,  when  these  are 
excited  from  without.  But  it  was  not  meant  to  act  on 
the  line  of  prejudice  and  passion.  It  will  not,  when 
taught  by  Scripture,  and  by  men  of  God ; and  it 
should  be  kept  true  to  its  constitutional  design.  Other- 
wise a wrong  educational  bias  makes  it,  not  an  antag- 
onist, but  an  apologist,  of  evil ; and,  insensibly,  our 


4G 


moral  defences  are  broken  down.  A Christian  culture 
gives  it  a right  direction.  Use  accumulates  its  energy  ; 
every  appeal  to  it  is  likely  to  carry  God’s  mysterious 
blessing  with  it ; and  the  good  results  are  sure.  Well 
taught  and  unsophisticated  young  men  respond  to  a 
right  appeal  to  the  moral  sense  as  they  do  not  and 
could  not  to  any  lower  principle.  The  response  is 
sometimes  deep  ; deeper  than  it  seems ; deeper  than 
is  acknowledged.  The  higher  principles  of  the  mind 
are  stirred ; a new  resolve  succeeds ; a better  order, 
more  vigorous  study,  and  a more  virtuous  life.  A more 
profound  sense  of  responsible  manhood  is  produced,  a 
healthier  freedom  of  the  will,  a loftier  courage,  a more 
generous  activity ; and  then  the  greatest  work  of  nat- 
ural discipline  is  done.  Do  we  discourse  to  such  of  the 
agreeable  and  the  comely,  of  the  dignity  of  scholarship, 
of  the  triumphs  they  may  achieve,  the  laurels  they 
may  win?  We  may  divert  them  from  their  better 
thoughts,  inflate  them  by  our  pleasant  pictures  and 
gilded  promises,  and  excite  them  to  seek  the  treacher- 
ous boon.  But  they  cease  to  respect  us  or  to  respect 
themselves  when  they  are  thus  induced  to  honor  vir- 
tue, not  for  its  own  sake,  but  for  its  prize.  The  pres- 
sure of  an  enlightened  conscience  is  better.  It  is  more 
effectual.  It  is  more  enduring.  It  is  likely  to  be  sav- 
ing. The  teacher  has  gained  all  that  is  possible  to  man 
when  he  has  so  reached  the  student’s  soul,  not  by  a 
sensuous  artifice,  but  by  a living  truth. 

There  are  great  evils  and  dangers  in  college  life, 


47 


growing  out  of  the  disproportionate  activity  of  indiffer- 
ent principles,  or  the  stimulus  of  the  selfish  desires, 
which,  under  any  system,  forms,  rules,  and  laws  cannot 
reach.  They  can  be  controlled  only  by  the  moral 
sense.  Such  are  the  frequent  jealousies,  competitions, 
party  spirit,  the  fret  of  college  politics,  supposed  con- 
flicting interests  of  classes  or  societies,  diversities  of 
occasional  plans  and  measures  for  study,  exercise,  or 
play,  which  all  concern  not  the  relations  of  students  to 
the  College,  but  to  one  another.  Sometimes  great  irri- 
tations are  thus  produced.  A sudden  friction  devel- 
ops the  latent  heat,  and  threatens  conflagration.  The 
best  men  are  liable  to  ignite  the  soonest,  from  the  quick 
susceptibility  of  the  moral  sense.  But  as  the  questions 
then  at  issue  have  generally  no  direct  concern  with 
conscience,  when  that  is  cleared  and  righted,  order  is 
restored.  They  are  questions,  not  of  right,  but  policy  ; 
not  vital,  but  prudential ; affecting  not  the  virtue  or 
safety  of  the  parties,  but  their  pleasure  or  convenience; 
not  their  character,  but  their  name  or  influence;  not 
their  merit,  but  position.  The  heat,  however  violent, 
subsides  when  the  appeal  lies  back  of  nerves  and 
blood  and  temper,  or  policies  and  measures,  to  a prin- 
ciple that  is  moral,  essential,  and  eternal.  When  that 
speaks,  as  it  does,  under  a consistent  Christian  training, 
it  is  as  when  the  voice  that  bids  it  speak  once  ener- 
gized over  the  stormy  sea  of  Galilee,  rebuking  the 
winds  and  the  waters,  and  there  was  a great  calm. 

(8)  Your  Committee  are  here  brought  naturally  to 


48 


a point,  which,  in  their  judgment,  is  most  of  all  impor- 
tant ; namely,  the  Christian  character  of  educated  young 
men.  It  is  out  of  question,  that  this  is  the  desirable 
end  of  all  learning  and  discipline  ; and  that,  inasmuch 
as  any  College  fails  in  this  respect,  it  comes  short  of  its 
great  design ; for  true  knowledge,  wisdom,  and  virtue 
are  attainable  only  so  far  as  the  human  faculties  are 
brought  into  correspondence  with  the  mind  of  God,  and 
conformity  with  his  system  of  the  world  revealed  by  his 
Son  from  heaven. 

Whether  a truly  Christian  education  should  not  begin, 
continue,  and  end  with  the  cultivation  of  the  moral 
element,  and  whether,  in  this  respect,  our  best  institu- 
tions of  learning  are  not  in  fault,  your  Committee  do 
not  here  inquire.  That  will  be  better  understood  when 
time  shall  have  more  fully  tested  our  present  methods. 
It  is  sufficient  to  insist,  that  it  should,  at  least,  rise  with 
systematic  culture  from  the  sensuous,  the  sentimental, 
the  formal,  the  intellectual,  to  that  higher  platform  ; 
that  the  conscience,  taught  not  artificially  but  from 
Scripture,  should  be  the  ultimate,  regulating  principle 
of  all  natural  activity ; and  that  then  only  a Christian 
character  is  likely  to  be  superinduced.  It  is  the  office 
of  the  conscience,  so  instructed,  to  bring  the  mind  into 
a view  of  its  relations  to  God.  This  may  be  regarded 
its  peculiar  work,  in  distinction  from  the  mere  humani- 
ties. It  points  heavenward.  It  has  respect  to  an  eternal 
retribution.  It  awakens  awe,  reverence,  fear ; and  these 
are  described  as  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  Experience 


49 


shows  that  young  men,  if  they  acquire  a Christian  char- 
acter at  all,  make  this  necessary  beginning.  It  is  their 
point  of  departure  from  a lower  to  a higher  sphere. 
Apprehending  and  fearing  God,  they  begin  to  contem- 
plate the  vast  realities  that  grow  out  of  their  relations 
to  his  moral  government.  They  begin  to  see  things  as 
they  are.  They  begin  to  sink  the  conceptional,  the 
imaginary,  in  the  actual ; to  apprehend  their  own  char- 
acter and  their  prospects  as  God  describes  them.  They 
begin  to  know  themselves,  — their  selfishness,  impurities, 
disorders,  irregularities,  weaknesses,  insufficiency,  neces- 
sities, and  the  effects  and  consequences  of  sin  in  general. 
They  begin  to  feel.  They  begin  to  tremble.  They 
begin  to  pray.  They  begin  to  apprehend  the  Gospel. 
God’s  plan  of  restoring  the  lost  order  of  the  soul,  the 
lost  order  of  the  universe,  begins  to  open  upon  their 
minds.  They  begin,  then,  if  God  so  pleases,  to  see  also 
the  glory  and  sufficiency  of  Christ ; and  as  His  almighty 
word  produces  the  divine  life  within  them,  they  begin 
to  love.  Then  the  end  is  gained.  They  are  saved. 
The  lost  principle  of  order  is  reproduced  within  them. 
The  work  for  which  mainly  we  educate  them  is  done ; 
and  what  follows,  upon  a continued  Christian  discipline, 
is  the  highest  possible  development  of  all  their  faculties, 
under  the  highest  of  all  principles,  — a Christian  love. 
It  is  the  greatest  sight  on  earth.  Every  Christian 
teacher  has  witnessed  such  results  of  his  disinterested 
and  faithful  labors.  How  extensive  they  could  become 
under  a more  consistent  and  vigorous  Christian  disci- 

7 


50 


pline,  it  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  judge  beforehand. 
But  if  there  be  a limit  to  the  Divine  blessing  upon 
divinely  appointed  means  of  education,  that  limit  is  not 
known,  and  our  ignorance  in  that  respect  suggests  no 
discouragement  to  the  vigorous  use  of  them.  At  least 
it  may  be  said,  that  if  such  means  avail  not  to  so  desir- 
able an  end,  it  would  be  unwise  to  reckon  upon  mere 
questionable  expedients.  It  is  not  probable,  that  the 
causes  existing  in  the  mind  of  students,  to  prevent  the 
success  of  the  higher  and  the  legitimate,  would  insure 
any  desirable  success  to  the  lower  and  the  doubtful. 

However,  so  far  as  any  College  should  become  im- 
bued with  the  Christian  spirit,  it  is  certain  there  must 
be  order,  and  the  fruits  of  it,  in  the  best  possible  culture 
of  young  men.  If  Christianity,  not  merely  as  a doc- 
trinal but  vital  institution,  be  any  thing,  in  this  respect, 
it  is  every  thing.  It  is  every  thing  objectively  in  respect 
to  doctrine,  and  every  thing  subjectively  in  respect  to 
life.  It  strikes  for  a perfect  body  and  a perfect  soul. 
Christ  established  the  order  of  the  universe,  and  he 
alone  restores  the  disordered  scene.  There  cannot  but 
be  similitudes  and  foretastes  of  that  promised  restitution 
wherever  His  divine  power  reaches,  touches,  and  renews. 
All  the  treasures  of  knowledge,  wisdom,  and  virtue,  are 
in  him.  Whether  any  true  natural  knowledge  could  be 
gained,  in  a comprehensive  sense,  except  as  one  should 
take  his  departure  from  Christianity,  and  correct  his 
observations  by  it,  some  might  plausibly  affirm,  though 
the  natural  and  moral  are  but  integral  related  parts  of 


51 


one  comprehensive  system,  whose  centre  is  Christ.  That, 
if  it  be  a problem,  may  yet  be  solved  adversely  to  all 
the  instinctive,  inductive,  or  speculative  wisdom  which, 
in  all  periods,  has  affected  a pagan  independence  of 
supernatural  enlightenment.  But,  upon  the  admission 
of  Christianity,  it  cannot  be  a question,  that  the  Chris- 
tian, other  things  being  equal,  is  most  likely  to  know 
truly  whatever  lies  within  the  range  of  the  human 
faculties,  and  to  make  the  wisest  and  best  discourse 
of  it  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  It  is  equally  out 
of  question  that  a Christian  College,  when  not  meas- 
ured by  the  superficial  standards  which  are  apt  to 
be  most  agreeable  to  popular  ideas,  but,  in  a truly 
scientific  and  liberal  view,  must  attain  to  the  truest  dig- 
nity, and  contribute  most  effectually  to  the  public  good. 
It  is  a restored  microscosm,  all  whose  parts  then  take 
their  proper  ‘place,  shape,  proportion,  relation,  impulse, 
movement;  and  circle,  in  wondrous  harmony,  around 
the  central  sun.  A health-giving  atmosphere  surrounds 
it,  — a clear  blue  heaven  of  affection,  confidence,  cheer- 
fulness, earnestness,  energy,  faithfulness,  hope,  peace, 
whether  in  a state  of  activity  or  repose.  It  would 
doubtless,  then  be  possible  to  fall  out  of  a right  adjust- 
ment ; but  it  would  be  scarcely  possible  to  remain  dis- 
ordered. There  might  be  a mistake,  a wrong,  a jar, 
and  confusion  likely  to  ensue.  But  the  vital,  centraliz- 
ing force  would  control,  restore,  preserve.  On  such  a 
scene  a mysterious  spirit  of  conservation  spreads  all 
through  and  all  around.  Every  wound  heals  by  the 


52 


first  intention ; and  the  recuperative  processes  are  like 
a new  creation.  Free  minds,  loving  hearts,  cheerful 
faces,  courteous  intercourse,  peaceful  halls,  vigorous 
study,  large  accomplishment,  dignify  the  scene.  Truth 
abides,  law  is  honored,  virtue  reigns.  The  church  and 
the  state  open  themselves  to  receive  the  reviving  influ- 
ence. They  reflect  a corresponding  patronage,  and  the 
common  Christianity  insures  the  common  salvation. 
That  is  the  true  glory  of  any  College ; and  it  becomes 
the  glory  of  any  people,  though,  as  yet,  it  is  but  ‘ the 
desire  of  nations.’ 

This  is  certainly  not  an  extravagant  ideal,  unless 
Christianity  itself  be  regarded  as  a chimera,  and  practi- 
cally a failure.  Or  if  it  be  an  ideal,  in  the  sense  of 
exceeding  any  considerable  realization  in  the  past  or 
present,  the  failure  certainly  is  not  chargeable  upon 
Christianity  itself,  but  our  one-sided  and  partial  use  of 
it ; — a reproach  which  can  only  be  wiped  away  by  our 
higher  exercise  of  the  Christian  spirit.  It  must  be 
removed  if  we  would  not  suffer  the  Christian  schools  to 
become,  like  the  academies  of  the  pagan  ages,  patrons  of 
philosophical  unbelief,  and  instruments  of  popular  de- 
cline. 

Your  Committee  have  great  diffidence  in  propounding 
views  so  little  in  accordance  with  received  ideas  and 
established  methods.  They  would  have  deprecated 
beforehand  the  occasion  now  given  of  questioning  the 
opinions,  more  or  less  settled,  of  your  Memorialists, 
many  of  whom  are  personally  known  to  them,  and  from 


53 


whose  judgment,  on  any  subject  which  had  been  well 
considered  by  them,  no  prudent  man  would  willingly 
dissent.  But  Providence  asks  not  our  leave,  and  heeds 
not  our  poor  wisdom,  in  its  ordering  of  events.  We  are 
sometimes  called  to  speak  when  we  should  have  chosen 
silence.  It  is  not,  then,  the  part  even  of  prudence  to 
be  unfaithful  to  our  best  convictions.  There  are  greater 
evils  than  an  honest  conflict  of  opinions,  among  intelli- 
gent and  good  men,  on  questions  like  the  present,  that 
reach  so  far,  and  yet  have  happened  to  be  discussed  so 
little.  Its  worst  probable  consequence  is  a temporary 
personal  inconvenience.  The  result  is  likely  to  be  a 
better  clearing  up,  and  a final  settlement,  of  truth. 

But  it  should  be  observed,  that  the  objections  above 
taken  to  the  propositions  of  your  Memorialists  apply 
only  so  far  as  they  contemplate  a system  of  scholarships 
and  prizes  as  a stimulus  to  literary  competition.  To 
reward  merit  is  legitimate ; to  encourage  talent  and 
industry  is  a duty ; and  to  assist  worthy  and  enterprising 
young  men  in  their  pursuit  of  knowledge  under  the 
disadvantages  of  friendlessness  and  poverty  is  one  of  the 
highest  offices  of  benevolence.  Your  Committee  would 
not  even  seem  to  contravene  this  law  of  Providence. 
They  would  advocate  the  endowment  of  scholarships,  or 
other  methods  of  quickening  the  zeal  of  students,  to  any 
extent  that  might  consist  with  the  principles  which  they 
have  here  attempted  to  explain.  Such  charities,  by 
whomever  bestowed,  and  in  whatever  form,  could  not 


54 


fail  to  be  honorable  to  the  College  and  useful  to  the 
State. 

Your  Committee  beg  leave  to  propose  the  following 
Resolutions  : — 

Resolved , That  this  Board  entertains  a profound 
sense  of  the  wisdom  and  judgment  of  the  Memorialists, 
and  of  their  zeal  for  good  learning  and  public  virtue,  as 
well  as  the  best  interests  of  their  Alma  Mater;  and 
would  hereby  express  to  them  sincere  regret  in  being 
constrained  to  differ  from  them  on  the  questions  they 
have  submitted. 

Resolved , That  this  Board  will  heartily  cooperate 
with  the  Memorialists,  or  other  friends  of  the  College, 
for  the  endowment  of  scholarships  in  accordance  with 
the  views  above  expressed,  or  in  other  measures  which 
may  induce  worthy  young  men  to  seek  the  benefits  of  a 
public  education,  or  serve  to  quicken  their  honest  zeal 
in  its  pursuit. 

Resolved , That  the  above  Memorial  and  Report  be 
printed,  and  distributed  at  the  discretion  of  the  Pruden- 
tial Committee. 

N.  LORD,  for  the  Committee . 


